US President Barack Obama has turned down calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make Iran’s recognition of the state of Israel a part of a deal on Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.

“The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing Israel is really akin to saying that we won’t sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms. And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgment,” Obama said in an interview with NPR on Monday.

The P5+1 powers (US, UK, China, Russia, France, and Germany) said that they agreed a preliminary framework of the much anticipated deal with Iran last Thursday.